Saudi Arabia - behding in the 21st century.

Saudi Arabia uses public behding as the punishment for murder, rape, drug trafficking, sodomy, armed robbery, apostasy and certain other offences. 2007 was the record yr for executions with 153 men and three women executed. Forty five men and two women were behded in 2002, a further 52 men and 1 woman in 2003 and 35 men and a woman in 2004. Executions rose in 2005 with 88 men and two women being behded and then reduced to 35 men and four women in 2006. 102 people were executed in Saudi Arabia during 2008 but it is thought that two of these were by shooting in Asir Province. 67 people were behded in 2009, including two women. The execution rate fell markedly in 2010 with 26 men being behded.
The condemned of both sexes are typically given tranquillisers and then taken by police van to a public square or a car park after midday prayers. Their eyes are covered and they are blindfolded. The police clr the square of traffic and a sheet of plastic sheet about 16 feet square is laid out on the ground.
Dressed in either a white robe or their own clothes, barefoot, with sled feet and hands cuffed behind their back, the prisoner is led by a police r to the centre of the sheet where they are made to kneel facing Mecca. An Interior Ministry official rds out the prisoner's name and crime to the crowd.
Saudi Arabia uses a traditional Arab scimitar which is 1100-1200 mm long. The executioner is handed the sword by a policeman and raises the glming scimitar, often swinging it two or three times in the air to warm up his arm muscles, before approaching the prisoner from behind and jabbing him in the back with the tip of the blade, causing the person to raise their hd. (see photo) Then with a single swing of the sword the prisoner is decapitated.
Normally it takes just one swing of the sword to sever the hd, often sending it flying some two or three feet. Paramedics bring the hd to a doctor, who uses a gloved hand to stop the fountain of blood spurting from the neck. The doctor sews the hd back on, and the body is wrapped in the blue plastic sheet and taken away in an ambulance. Burial takes place in an unmarked grave in the prison cemetery.
Behdings of women did not start until the rly 1990’s, previously they were shot. Forty seven women have been publicly behded up to the end of 2010.
Most executions take place in the three major cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dahran. Saudi executioners take grt pride in their work and the post tends to be handed down from one eration to the next.
Source:Capital Punishment UK